Photo Credit: thomasd007
The following is a summary of “Heterogeneity of Clinical Phenotypes in Severe Acute Respiratory Infections due to Respiratory Syncytial Virus: A Need to Look Beyond Hospitalization,” published in the December 2024 issue of Pediatrics by Horvat et al.
In infants, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of severe acute respiratory infections (SARI), which present difficulties in feeding, breathing, or neurological responses.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to examine the clinical diversity of infants diagnosed with SARI due to RSV before the introduction of immunizations.
They reviewed medical records of infants diagnosed with SARI due to RSV (2014–2019) birth cohort in a tertiary care center in Lyon, France, and SARI was categorized using the World Health Organization (WHO) severity criteria, nutritional impairments (inability to feed), respiratory impairments (oxygen saturation [SpO2] <93%), or neurological impairments (failure to respond or apneas).
The results showed 3 distinct but sometimes overlapping phenotypes of RSV-related SARI: nutritional, respiratory, and neurological impairments. Some infants experienced respiratory and nutritional impairments simultaneously. Nutritional impairments were more common in infants aged 1.5 to 3 months (P=0.01), while neurological impairments were more frequent in infants younger than 1.5 months (P=0.002).
They concluded that understanding the overlapping phenotypes of RSV-related SARI was critical for guiding care and public health strategies in the era of immunization.
Source: jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(24)00544-4/fulltext
